Blues
Sam Myers:
Sam Myers got a second chance at the brass ring, and he happily made the most of it. As frontman for Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets, the legally blind Myers's booming voice and succinct harp work have enjoyed a higher profile recently than ever before.
Although he was born and mostly raised in Mississippi, Myers got into the habit of coming up to visit Chicago as early as 1949 (where he learned from hearing Little Walter and James Cotton). Myers joined a band, King Mose & the Royal Rockers, after settling in Jackson, MS, in 1956. Myers's 1957 debut 45 for Johnny Vincent's Ace logo, "Sleeping in the Ground"/"My Love Is Here to Stay," featured backing by the Royal Rockers.
Myers played both drums and harp behind slide guitar great Elmore James at a 1961 session for Bobby Robinson's Fire label in New Orleans. Myers cut a standout single of his own for Robinson's other logo, Fury Records, the year before that coupled his appealing remake of Jimmy Reed's "You Don't Have to Go" with "Sad, Sad Lonesome Day."
Myers made some albums with a loosely knit group called the Mississippi Delta Blues Band for TJ during the early '80s before teaming up with young Texas guitar slinger Funderburgh, whose insistence on swinging grooves presents the perfect backdrop for Myers. Their first collaboration for New Orleans-based Black Top Records, 1985's My Love Is Here to Stay, was followed by several more albums, Sins, Rack 'Em Up, Tell Me What I Want to Hear, 1995's Live at the Grand Emporium each one confirming that this was one of the most enduring blues partnerships of the 1990s. In 2004, Myers released his first solo album, Coming from the Old School, just two years before he died, on July 17, 2006.
Bill Dahl. AMG.
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Papa Lightfoot:
Thanks to a handful of terrific 1950s sides, the name of Papa Lightfoot was spoken in hushed and reverent tones by 1960s blues aficionados. Then, producer Steve LaVere tracked down the elusive harp master in Natchez, cutting an album for Vault in 1969 that announced to the world that Lightfoot was still wailing like a wildman on the mouth organ. Alas, his comeback was short-lived; he died in 1971 of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. Sessions for Peacock in 1949 (unissued), Sultan in 1950, and Aladdin in 1952 preceded an amazing 1954 date for Imperial in New Orleans that produced Lightfoot's "Mean Old Train," "Wine Women Whiskey" (comprising his lone single for the firm) and an astonishing "When the Saints Go Marching In." Lightfoot's habit of singing through his harp microphone further coarsened his already rough-hewn vocals, while his harp playing was simply shot through with endless invention. Singles for Savoy in 1955 and Excello the next year (the latter billed him as "Ole Sonny Boy") closed out Lightfoot's '50s recording activities, setting the stage for his regrettably brief comeback in 1969.
Bill Dahl. AMG.
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01. Wine, Women & Whiskey
02. Jump The Boogie
03. Mean Ol Train
04. Pl Blues
05. When The Saints Go Marchin In
06. Blue Lights
07. Mean Ol Train
08. Wild Fire
09. Jumping With Jarvis
10. Rub A Little Boogie
11. Mr. Ticket Agent
12. Coming Back Home
13. Creole Gal Blues
14. She’ll Be Mine After Awhile
15. Mean Ol Train #3
16. Sleeping In The Ground
17. My Love Is Here To Stay
18. You Don’t Have To Go
19. Sad, Sad Lonesome Day
20. Look On Yonder Wall
21. Poor Little Angel Child
22. Rhythm With Me
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